Stating Objectives

I am taking a set of classes on Assessment. It is part of the New Teacher Support Program, and runs as a 4-part set. I'll admit that I wasn't necessarily thrilled about the other choices (differentiation and engagement). I feel like I do a fairly good job of differentiating, and will hopefully continue to improve. I also believe my kids are engaged, partially because of the content and partially because of my enthusiasm. So Assessment it was!

The big takeaway for me was connected to objectives. During student teaching I never posted my objectives. Some folks did, but I thought that it was fairly pointless. Who was I trying to appease, folks who walk into my room or my kids? I wasn't sold on the notion that my kids really would care that the objective was on the board. Fast forward to last fall and I was posting my objective. Why? I'll admit that initially it was more symbolic than functional. I saw others doing it and felt like "when in Rome, do as the Romans."

Over the course of the past 12-16 months I've changed my thinking a bit. I have my objectives posted on the Activboard everyday (same as before). I also state it at the beginning, and circle back to it after any direct instruction or when people move into independent work time. I've got reading/writing objectives as well as content objectives. I usually have the reading/writing skill posted, not the content (stated orally). My reasoning for posting it is to ensure that kids are aware of where we are going. Does everyone get it? No. But by stating the objective (which can change daily or weekly, depending on what we are working on) kids get an idea of what they need to practice. Is it asking questions while reading? Is it summarizing text? Is it...

The alternative is kids asking "why are we doing this?" Ugh. I still get that, but not as much as I used to.